# The Real Reason Your Team Only Performs When You're Watching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrvt2Zjicxk

[00:00] Thank you.
[00:01] This conference has been amazing.
[00:01] Oh, cool.
[00:02] Thank you.
[00:02] I think everyone I've been with feels the same way.
[00:04] Um, my name's Christina.
[00:05] I'm from Austin and I sell high-end ranch events and excursions to Fortune 500 companies.
[00:12] And so almost like a dude ranch without lodging.
[00:15] Um, we do anywhere from 3.8 to 4.5 annually.
[00:18] Um, and I'd like to be around eight.
[00:22] Cool.
[00:22] Um, and we're on track to do that.
[00:25] Uh, but what's stopping me is a people problem.
[00:28] Okay.
[00:28] What, give me, give me more.
[00:29] Is it you don't have enough people?
[00:31] What is it?
[00:33] Well, as Austin's grown, it's been harder to find cowboys and cowgirls cuz it's all metro now.
[00:38] Yeah.
[00:38] But we're solving that by growing our own now and training our own.
[00:42] Um, but a bigger problem is, um, that I've got some answers from this, but I would love to know as I've grown the company and I'm not able to be in all the different areas and as we've hired more manpower, I feel like I work on one part of the business.
[00:58] I get the SOPs dialed in, have it all ready to go, go work on.
[01:01] Another part and then that one gets unwound before I can get back to it.
[01:06] And it's just a reoccurring problem in all my companies.
[01:10] So two issues.
[01:12] Um what's the same core issue.
[01:13] It could be two different reasons for it and they could be both at the same time.
[01:16] Um the leaders you have have skill deficiencies.
[01:21] And so either it means that you're hiring with too low of a bar.
[01:22] You're not hiring smart enough people that have enough batteries and GPS included.
[01:27] Option one.
[01:28] Okay.
[01:29] Option two is you're not good enough at training people.
[01:31] Okay.
[01:31] Either way the end result is that they do not have the skills in order to continue to do the activities that you do.
[01:36] I'm going to bet that when you turn it go into departments, you probably turn them around pretty quick.
[01:41] When what?
[01:41] You probably turn it When you show up, things work and then when you disappear, it stops working, right?
[01:47] Pretty much, yes.
[01:48] And so what that means is that work as well and it's slow.
[01:53] What hap What mean What that means is that you are the
[01:56] You
[01:57] Try not to get too behaviorally here, but like you were the discriminating stimulus for reinforcement.
[02:00] Meaning you
[02:01] Were the totem that people look to to say good job.
[02:04] What means is that you have to install that um into the leaders who you leave behind.
[02:11] So either so what happens is first you define what you know success looks like.
[02:15] You say this is what good is.
[02:17] Then you demonstrate it because you're the leader, right?
[02:18] And then you get them to try to do it, right?
[02:20] And then they do it in front of you.
[02:22] And then uh you watch what they do.
[02:24] And then you say great job or that sucked and here's what you need to do to fix it.
[02:30] And then you keep repeating that until eventually it sticks and it becomes a cultural norm, which then goes from you giving people kudos.
[02:37] And if you do that enough times, they start giving each other kudos.
[02:41] And then if that happens long enough, they start correcting each other in private.
[02:45] That's the process.
[02:45] And so what's happening likely is that you're getting to step five of that.
[02:48] You're doing good job, bad job, do it this way next time.
[02:52] But in the next step, which is repeated until it sticks, that's the part you're missing.
[02:57] Totally.
[02:58] Yeah.
[02:58] I think the problem is what when I'm time blocking, what
[03:03] When you start adding that on the plate of all the other things that we're doing, it takes a lot of time to go back and do that.
[03:10] And so the step that happens in order to transfer reinforcement from a person to the rest of the organization, which is what we want to have happen.
[03:18] Functionally, that is what culture is, right?
[03:19] You build a culture, it means that you're establishing rules of reinforcement in organization.
[03:23] And so the people who are there do not reinforce each other.
[03:26] And so that means that you need to give other people kudos for giving kudos.
[03:32] Okay.
[03:33] That's the leave behind.
[03:33] Is that if you can get them basically your signal of like I have done my work here is when they start giving each other kudos for doing the job right.
[03:40] And when someone new comes in, they're like, "Oh, why do you guys do it?"
[03:44] So like this is how we've always done it.
[03:45] That's how.
[03:47] And then because that's when it becomes a norm.
[03:47] When they don't actually have to witness you doing the reinforcement, it's just how everyone behaves here, because it's socially safer to model the behavior of the group when you're new in any environment.
[03:56] And so that's what happens when the companies have strong cultures, but it starts at the leader.
[04:01] They reinforce the leaders for doing.
[04:03] Good stuff.
[04:03] Those leaders then have to pass it on.
[04:05] That's the behavioral piece that's missing in your leadership style right now, which will allow you to scale.
[04:12] And so when you've been in business 15 years and that I don't have any culture cancer right now.
[04:15] I have a lot of great people that maybe missing those skills.
[04:20] Do you start by bringing somebody in that already knows how to help you create that or do you start grassroots the people you already have?
[04:27] If you like the people you have, it means that they just lack leadership skills, which if we're following through that same framework that it's walked through, it's like are they defining or restating what you said is good?
[04:38] Is your Are your standards what their standards?
[04:40] We have to make sure they're aligned.
[04:42] If we know that their standards are your standards, are they living those standards, which is one of the biggest misses that happens with small managers.
[04:48] Like, well, you know, uh you know, boss said XYZ, but you know, boss is a little aggressive.
[04:53] I'm you know, they're not here right now.
[04:55] We can take it easy.
[04:56] They're not leading by example.
[04:57] And so this is where like your eyes and this is like to be fair, this is a probably affects everybody here who has employees.
[05:03] Like, these are the tactical.
[05:05] Things.
[05:07] If they are not doing those behaviors, if you want everyone to show up early and they're not showing up early, you start with the leader.
[05:12] Why are you not showing up early?
[05:14] Well, I mean, it's right.
[05:14] You have to be whatever the line is more.
[05:17] Okay.
[05:18] And it starts the most extreme with you and then we know the first level is going to be a little bit less extreme and they're going to It's always going to get diluted down, which is why founders tend to be these extreme eccentric crazy people, but part of that is because you have to be, because you know that you're going to You have to be the most concentrated version of what your values are, which is just, you know, boiled down words that are just behaviors.
[05:37] It's all it is.
[05:39] Okay.
[05:40] So helpful.
[05:40] Okay, good.
[05:41] Thank you very much.
[05:42] Now But it's it That's That's how we're Like cuz you have an ops issue, is what it sounds like.
[05:45] And so I'm giving you ops feedback, but that's what it Those are the things you have to do is that the beha- the the leaders you have have to lead by example.
[05:52] They have to make sure that their definitions of what you think good is are the same as what they have.
[05:57] They have to have the same reinforcement cycles of great job, bad job, right?
[06:01] And they have to keep repeating it until the behavior sticks.
[06:03] Period.
[06:05] And if they're not doing that, that's a you cycle with.
[06:07] Them to to teach them that leadership set of skills so that they can do it.
[06:12] Awesome.
[06:12] Thank you.
[06:14] Cool.
[06:14] Thank you.
[06:15] I appreciate that.
[06:17] Thanks, Lena.
[06:19] Thanks.
[06:20] It's I It's nice when your own team claps for you.
[06:23] [laughter]
[06:24] Thanks.
[06:24] Okay.
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